Face Down
by bananafrappe
Summary: I didn't know what had happened, but those markings had not come from a boxing match, and I would find out why she was hiding it from everyone who asked about the bruises.


Face Down

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Hey guys! Look at this! I'm getting distracted again! XD this is the product of my imagination at five in the morning, a songfic especially for one of my favorite couples ever, ItaSaku. Love them. Mostly love Itachi, but eh. A fangirl will be a fangirl. Anywho, the rating for this… M. I'm not thinking that there will be any particularly bad language (nothing worse than PG-13) or lemony goodness, but there will most certainly be violence, a slight amount of gore, described rape, and ideologically sensitive content. Ya'll know why… you've heard the song before… you know what it's about._

_Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own Naruto. Wish I did. But I don't._

_Advice: Listen to this song while you read. It really sets the mood. If you happen to not know what this song is, then here: it's called Face Down by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. YouTube it or whatever you do to listen to music._

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*Hey girl, you know you drive me crazy,  
one look puts the rhythm in my hand…*_

Unbelievable.

Unimaginable.

Undeniable.

Unforgettable.

There were many words that I could use to describe the girl that I was steadily falling in love with more and more every day, and I honestly couldn't think of any that were negative in any context. She was perfect to a fault, more beautiful than the dawn, always and forever interesting and entertaining and god… sometimes I could manage nothing more than staring at her helplessly, unable to reach out and touch her unique pink hair when it shone in the sun or kiss her when she was laughing and happy and free, because there was another thing that she was, something inescapable and loathsome…

Unavailable.

This most auspicious of all women had been claimed by my brother, and so I could do no more than watch and fantasize and seethe from a distance, settling for her friendship instead of the monopolizing relationship that I truly desired with her.

The fates were most cruel.

_*Still I'll never understand why you hang around;  
I see what's going down.*_

What I couldn't comprehend, even as she sat on my couch with tears still running down her face and her hand clutched around a Kleenex, was why she stayed with him.

As much as my younger brother seemed the perfect gentleman, and as much as my secret obsession and he appeared to be the flawless and seamless couple, I had, more than once, heard the screaming matches that they got into. They fought often, and hard, over the smallest of things, and I knew why.

She was too willful for him.

I knew what my brother liked, from spending so many years with him; he liked his women quiet and obedient and submissive. These were things that Sakura could never be. Her personality was as strong, if not stronger, than Sasuke's, and she was not the type of person that would lie down and let him walk all over her. She stood up for herself and made her opinion known, and that was when my brother got angry.

Fool.

It was wrong of me to think it as I sat beside her, offering my shoulder for support and stoically repressing a smirk when she accepted the gesture, but I knew that _I_ would not act the same way as he. I needed someone that could match wits with me for a relationship to work, and she could more than comply with that. It was wrong, yes… but it didn't stop me, and it never would.

After all, what wrong could trump wanting to steal my own brother's girlfriend?

Her phone went off after unknown minutes of us sitting together talking quietly in the confines of my home, and she looked down at the flashing screen on the device before standing up, looking back at me apologetically. "It's Sasuke; I'm going to talk to him, 'kay?" she said, and I nodded carelessly, waving a hand at her in a gesture that told her to proceed. I was her boyfriend's brother.

Why should I care that she needed to talk to her significant other?

It was as she was walking out of the room, flipping the phone open and holding it up to her ear, that the scowl of displeasure at her being torn from my side was allowed to appear. If she only knew how much I wanted to destroy that piece of technology for interrupting my time with her… if she knew how much I desired to hear her tell Sasuke that this fight had been the last…

There was not a word that could describe what my joy would be.

After a few moments of silent brooding and listening to her voice as she walked up and down the hallway, just out of sight, she returned to my living room, slipping her phone into her jean's pocket and reaching for her coat. She gave me a hopeful smile, wiping at the last of her tears with the back of her hand. "He wants me to come back so that we can talk. I'm gonna go, alright?" I nodded in acquiescence, standing and holding the back of her jacket for her so she could put it on. "That is good. Perhaps he has changed his mind." I said tonelessly while wrapping her scarf around her neck securely, and she looked up at me gratefully. "Thank you again, Itachi. It's good to know I have someone I can come to when we… when things start to get rough."

The hug she gave me all but stole my breath away, and I returned the gesture as platonically as I could manage. "You are most welcome. You know that you are always welcome here." She nodded, picking up her purse from where she had dropped it when she came in. "I'm going to have to take you out sometime to make up for crying all over your shirt again." She said laughingly, wiping at the makeup stains left on the sleeve of my shirt, and I shook my head in denial, wishing for all the world that I could accept but, according to the laws of chivalry, knowing that I could not.

"That is not necessary. I have many more where this came from." I said nonchalantly, and she pouted her lower lip out before going to the door. "Alright, fine. Party pooper. I'll call you later to tell you how it went, alright?" she said, setting her hand on the doorknob, and I made a soft noise of agreement before she opened the door and departed.

I watched through the window as she got into her car and pulled out of my driveway before going back to sit on my couch alone, collapsing back against the backrest and running a hand through my bangs in aggravation. I was growing weary of letting her go like this… perhaps one day she would finally see that Sasuke was not the one for her, come here, and never leave. It was this thought that gave me hope for the future, the one thing that kept despondency from my door…

I had no idea that things would spiral out of control faster than possibly imaginable.

_*Cover up with make up in the mirror;  
tell yourself it's never gonna happen again…  
You cry alone, and then he swears he loves you.*_

I remember the first time that I ever saw the bruises with perfect clarity.

I would have paid little attention if they had been the normal injuries that she received on a daily basis; working at the hospital often meant dealing with unruly patients, and she had gotten hit by flailing children and adults alike more than once. But I could not ignore the strange marks that were barely discernible on the skin of her forearms, or the faint outline of a bruise on her fair cheek.

They were too dark, despite the makeup used to cover them, to have been anything but purposefully placed.

When I inquired about them, she told me that they were nothing, merely the results of a boxing match she had gotten into with her best friend Naruto, and I would have believed her. I was not one to think that she would lie to me; I trusted her more than I trusted the sun to rise every morning. I would have gone on in ignorance had it not been for her tone as she made the claim. The way that she explained it… it was like she was desperate to make me believe the intricately detailed explanation she went into.

I didn't know what had happened, but those markings had not come from a boxing match, and I _would_ find out why she was hiding it from everyone who asked about the bruises.

_*Do you feel like a man, when you push her around?  
Do you feel better now, as she falls to the ground?  
Well, I'll tell you my friend; one day this world's going to end…*_

I could come to only one conclusion on the subject of Sakura's injuries… And even as I thought it, I wanted to shove the accusation away and never think of it again. Sasuke was many things, but abusive? He would not _dare_. He had been raised in the same manner as I had, and we had been taught to always treat women with care, respect, and honor. It was our duty as men to protect them from harm and provide for them; they were too fragile and breakable to be treated otherwise. That was not to say that they could not be seen as equals, or even betters, but caution had to be used when dealing with them. And purposefully harming a creature that could not defend itself from your attack…

It was not something that I wanted to think that anyone would do, much less my own kin.

My mind shied away from it, and I cringed at the very thought of confronting him about it if it were true, but… those bruises had been caused by something, and the signs pointed to physical abuse. However… perhaps I was looking too far into it. It was possible that she was merely embarrassed by the fact that another of her patients had socked her at the hospital and didn't want anyone to know. I would buy that; she was not one to complain to others about her pain or discomfort.

I settled on that thought, letting myself push the accusing thoughts aside, at least for the moment. If it was an accident, then nothing needed to be done. If it was as I feared, however…

_*As your lies crumble down, a new life she has found.*_

I would take her from him.

_*A pebble in the water makes a ripple effect:  
Every action in this world will bear a consequence.  
If you wade around forever you will surely drown…*_

I could not help the rage that shook my hands.

I promised myself that I would do nothing, say nothing, _think_ nothing even as they sat across the table from me, Sasuke occasionally brushing Sakura's arm with the back of his hand when she had been talking too much and Sakura accepting his dominance of the conversation with barely a comment. She sat almost silently during the whole meal, eyes on her plate and chin down. I was displeased by this, since talking with her was one of the only joys that I had in life, but that was not what was making me tremble with barely restrained ire.

She had acquired two more bruises.

I took her aside the first moment that I could, when Sasuke had to step outside to accept a business call. "Sakura…" I said quietly as I sat next to her in my living room for the umpteenth time, looking down at her calmly. She glanced up at me queryingly, eyes bright and happy now that her oppressor was absent. This merely served to reinforce my suspicion and discontent, and I reached out to touch the bruised markings around the base of her throat. "What are these from?"

She froze in obvious fear, shooting a terrified glance at the front door before turning back to me with a forced, fake smile. "Oh, those. Eh heh heh, they're just, you know, from the hospital. Old ladies with canes that don't want to pay for their office visits hit harder than you might think." She said with an attempt at making her comment light, and my eyes narrowed. "Really? I find that hard to believe. Do you want to know what I think really happened?" I asked harshly, and she sat back from me minutely, eyes slightly wide in anxious reluctance. "Uh… uhm… I don't… I think that I need to…" she stammered, attempting to stand to escape the conversation, but I grabbed on to her wrist to restrain her.

The yelp of pain the movement elicited gave me pause.

"What's wrong? Did I hurt you?" I asked carefully, pulling her down by her forearm instead and looking at her wrist closely. The skin was slightly swollen and inflamed, and when I pressed one finger to it gently, she whimpered again before falling silent, averting her gaze from me. "It's just sprained. It'll get better." She murmured, and my lip curled even further. "Sakura, I need for you to answer me truthfully." I said authoritively, and her shoulders hunched down in response. Taking this as my answer, albeit a reluctant one, I continued, carefully brushing her hair back to look over the marks on her neck again. "These bruises, and your wrist, concern me. I don't believe the story that you gave me earlier in the week, so I want to know… is Sasuke abusing you?"

The look that she gave me said everything that I needed to know.

"I'm going to talk to him." I said bitterly, standing and starting to walk to the front door. This _boy_ needed to be set straight, and I would make sure that he knew that what he was doing was _not_ okay, using violence if I had to. Sakura's hands on my arm, restraining me weakly, made me stop and turn around, however, and when I looked at her intolerantly, there were tears of distress running down her cheeks. "Please, Itachi… don't. Don't do anything, it was just… he was angry, and I was being stubborn. I was out of line, and he's not going to do it again. He promised. He was right, anyway… I talk too much, and I don't mind being quiet…"

Her commentary did nothing to soothe me, her words merely adding to my desire to teach my brother that there was _never_ a reason to lay a hand on a woman. "Don't you _dare_ tell me that you deserve to be beaten by a man that should want nothing more than your well-being." I growled at her, shaking her hand off my arm brashly, but she immediately grappled for it again, shaking her head and making shining droplets of her tears fly off her cheeks. "_Please_, Itachi! It was a mistake! Haven't you ever made a mistake? He didn't mean to do it, and he's not going to ever again! Please don't make a big deal out of this…"

My gaze hardened further in response. "A _mistake_? How do you _mistakenly_ hit someone this many times? He has left four visible bruises on you and sprained your wrist. He meant to do it, Sakura, and this isn't something that is going to go away. He has seen that he can get you to comply with his desires this way, and he isn't going to stop. Mark my words, the next time that you stand up to him, you'll be getting hit again, and it will continue until only god knows what happens. Don't make me stand on the sidelines and expect me to do nothing."

She looked at me pleadingly. "No, he promised. He loves me, Itachi… and I love him, so I have to believe him. He doesn't want to hurt me… he just gets angry… it won't happen again. I swear. Just… don't."

I took a deep, shuddering breath before releasing it, unable to look at her and continue on my rampage. I could not ignore her if she was so sure of his honesty, and I didn't desire to make her angry with me by destroying the relationship she so obviously relied on.

Shortly after she convinced me to grudgingly sit back down with her and pretend that nothing was wrong, Sasuke returned and took her back to the apartment that they shared, thanking me for the dinner and departing into the night. I let them go without comment, as Sakura had asked of me, despite wanting nothing more than to rip my brother's arm from around her waist as he led her out the door. He no longer deserved to be able to touch her, in my opinion…

But, since she was so convinced of his intention to never harm her again, I would do nothing so long as I never saw another of those bruises again.

_*I see what's going down.*_

I kept a careful watch over her every time that I saw her after that, making sure that she had no obvious markings on her body or that she had any greater injuries than that, but I never saw anything out of place. She seemed well enough off, always happy to inform me on the research project she was currently doing in her department at the hospital and detailing her pride over her sister's recent pregnancy, but this did not give me peace of mind.

I was not a stupid man, fortunately, and as an officer of the law, I had seen more abuse cases than I care to admit. There was one thing that I knew for certain; once abuse starts, nothing but direct, external confrontation will stop it, and if Sasuke had honored his promise to desist in his treatment of the girl I loved, then my name wasn't Itachi Uchiha. He was still using force to make her obey him, just being smarter about it. Sakura must have told him that people had been getting suspicious (obviously using no names, since my brother still talked and acted the same around me) and he had stopped leaving marks that could be seen, at least on the visible sections of her skin.

The fact that he was thinking such moves through made his crime all the worse, but I could do nothing because of the promise I had made Sakura. I saw no bruises or injuries, so I could do nothing.

_*I see the way you go and say you're alright again,  
say you're alright again: heed my lecture…*_

I tried to talk her into letting me peacefully confront him about it. I wanted nothing more than to do the same to him as he had done to her, but I would restrain myself for her sake if it would save her pain, even at my expense. She absolutely and resolutely refused, however, insisting that, due to the fact that I had no physical proof of any continuance of abuse, I had no reason to intervene.

She told me, over and over, that she was fine, that nothing was wrong, but I could see the fear in her eyes and feel it in the way that she clutched my arm more tightly than she normally would, and knowing that she was lying to me and covering up for my brother's offenses with sacrifices that she shouldn't have to make made me want to ignore her and talk to him anyway. I refused this thought, however, reluctant to break the first serious promise that I had ever made to the girl of my dreams, but…

Why couldn't she just _listen_ to me? I knew what I was talking about; I was one of her trusted friends… why did my words have no meaning when his gained all of her attention? I knew that I had no right to the bitterness that I felt for her attentions, since they weren't all entirely willful, but I couldn't help but feel slighted by having my warnings ignored over the love that my brother felt for her. Yes, I knew that in some small, twisted way, Sasuke loved her. He had worked too hard for too long to get her as his own for there to be any other conclusion.

It felt wrong to me though, because I just couldn't understand his motives for harming someone weaker than himself. When had he become a monster with no conscious?

_*Do you feel like a man, when you push her around?*_

No sort of _man_ pushes around the defenseless and the weak. That is an act of atrocity and cynicism that civilized people didn't practice.

_*Do you feel better now, as she falls to the ground?*_

It couldn't feel good to watch her cringe away from him every time he reached out to touch her. It couldn't be satisfying to know that he had laid hands on her to earn her compliance. Where was his honor, his self-respect?

_*Well, I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end,  
as your lies crumble down, a new life she has found.*_

This manufactured deference that he made her labor beneath… it was worse than a lie, and nothing untrue can last forever. All too soon, his hold on her was going to break; her will was too strong for her to submit to such treatment for long, and she was going to see that she deserved better. She was an intelligent woman; she would know that no love should be tainted with fear, and that a relationship based around abuse would only end badly. She would break away from him, fall back into the life that she loved so much, and I would be there to take my place in her heart.

Just like it was meant to be.

_*Face down in the dirt, she said, "This doesn't hurt."  
She said, "I've finally had enough…"*_

She was leaving him.

I found Sakura on my doorstep a few minutes after five in the evening, looking down silently and despondently at her feet. I immediately ushered her inside, querying about her mood and its cause, and discovered, upon her looking up, that she was crying. She told me that I had been right, admitting her guilt over lying for someone who merely broke promise after promise to stop harming her and her shame in allowing it to go on for so long, and told me that she had had enough. That she was tired of being forced into submission just so her significant other could be happy. She cried on my shoulder for at least half an hour after that, unable to speak more than garbled thank you's for my understanding, and then she asked me what she should do.

I have never been so happy.

I advised her to approach the situation delicately, letting him down easy and not making any accusations further than outlining the reasons why she was breaking up with him, but to exercise extreme caution. I had never known my brother to be a bad sport, but I had once thought him incapable of the actions that he had been performing in the last few weeks as well, so I felt that I no longer knew him well enough to judge whether or not he would make any stupid moves in trying to harm her further.

I volunteered to come with her just in case, but she refused my offer, insisting that this was something that she had to do alone. I allowed her insistence grudgingly and let her go reluctantly, and as soon as the door slammed shut behind her I let out something that I never have before; a loud whoop of pure joy. Surely this meant that everything would be well again. My worried, sleepless nights would come to an end. Sakura would no longer fear punishment for her opinion. And the most exciting of all… we could finally move to being so much more than friends.

I should have known that my suspicions of no longer truly knowing my brother were correct.

_*One day she will tell you that she has had enough;  
it's coming round again.*_

The next time I saw her, it was three days later and I was just getting home from the grocery store.

I had been worried, when I had received no word as to how the discussion had gone. It was possible that she had been busy trying to find somewhere else to stay, or perhaps she had made good on her spoken aloud thoughts of going to see her parents for a while and had merely forgotten to call. But she had promised me that she would, and this was what concerned me the most. She hadn't gone this long without speaking to me in more than two years, and the suspicion that their discussion had gotten out of hand was reinforced tenfold with every hour that passed without news. After two days passed I went to Sasuke's apartment, to see if everything was alright, but when I got there no one was home.

I would have used my spare key to gain entrance, but I trusted that, since Sasuke and Sakura's cars were both absent, there was no one within and going inside would be a waste of time.

When I pulled up in my driveway and saw the crumpled heap on my doormat on the third day, I sighed unhappily, gathering my foodstuffs into my arms and locking my car. It appeared that a homeless vagrant had taken up residence on my porch… I would be forced to set them straight now.

Not looking forward to the encounter, I walked purposefully and officiously up my sidewalk towards the mass of dark clothes, eyes narrowed on the heap. How very strange… those were designer clothes that I recognized from Sakura's wardrobe. In fact, they were the very same clothes that I had seen her wearing the last time we had talked. As if to finalize my thought processes, a mop of unwashed pink hair came into view, some of the strands coated in blood and lying limp beside a very white, very still hand that bore Sakura's high school class ring.

The eggs and milk I was carrying were instantly forgotten as I dropped them thoughtlessly on the ground, rushing to her side and skimming my hands over her worriedly while checking for signs of life. Satisfactorily finding a weak and tremulous pulse at the base of her throat, I slid my arms underneath her and lifted her up, unlocking my front door with little difficulty (she was light enough that I could support her on one arm) before entering hurriedly and settling her on my couch, wrapping any blankets that I could find around her.

Once she was cocooned safely and warmly enough for my immediate liking, I brushed some of her hair back from her face, silently taking in the damage that she had accumulated over the time that she had been absent. Her eyes had deep, dark circles underneath them, the eyelids fluttering in her disturbed sleep, and blood was caked around her hairline and nostrils. A raw and obviously painful tear marred her lower lip and the dried trail of blood from it led down her neck to dark and heavy bruising on the delicate skin there. When I looked over her shaking and freezing cold hands, her chipped and worn nails with splinters stuck beneath them paled in comparison to the rope burns that wore bloody furrows in her wrists, and from the gurgling and groaning coming from the general vicinity of her stomach, I could estimate that she hadn't eaten more than a few bites of food in the past few days.

What the _hell_ had happened to her?

I cared for her in her exhausted and unhealthy state for the sum of fourteen hours, only leaving her side long enough to retrieve my groceries, make food, and fetch medicinal necessities. I was reluctant to betray her privacy so crassly, and nearly blushed uncharacteristically at having to do so, but I was forced to give her a bath to cleanse all of the filth and blood from her body so she could begin to heal. I surprised myself with my ability to do so platonically, though it wasn't all that unexpected, really; I was unable to even look at her naked body and think of anything but utter loathing for the person that forced such an atrocity on her. I was so disgusted and hateful because of what I found beneath her clothes; even more blood coated the inside of her thighs and dripped from numerous, shallow bite marks all over her torso, finger shaped bruises leaving dark grooves on her breasts and hips. Only one inference could be reached from the totality of all of her injuries…

She had been raped, most likely more than once.

My mind whirled as I watched her slumber more deeply and comfortably, now that she was clean, bandaged, and fed, not having woken up once during the entire process. She had been going to confront Sasuke when she disappeared… and now, three days later, she showed up on my doorstep, beaten and thoroughly broken in a way that no woman should ever be.

It was possible that she had gotten mugged and raped, of course… despite the fact that crime in the city was down to an incredibly satisfactory one point five percent, there would always be those few that would do anything, go to any lengths, to feed their obsessions. I feared that this was not the case, however, when Sakura started screaming in her sleep, pleas for mercy and anguished cries of Sasuke's name resounding in my ears for long hours after the begging had stopped. If that wasn't a telling indication, then I didn't know what was.

I was only human; what more could I do than think the worst of my brother?

There are few words that can be used to describe the state I found myself in after Sakura's sleep talking… I was not often taken by such emotion, but right now… I was pissed. I wanted to let my anger out in the most explosive manner possible, and I have to admit that Sasuke looked like he would be the recipient of the brunt of my wrath. I was reluctant to make early judgments just because of the fact that he had been abusing Sakura before, however, so I made myself wait for her to awaken, stewing in my ire and growing more and more tense with every minute that she lay there sleeping.

What if she never woke up? What if she had gotten a concussion, or had some sort of internal trauma, or had too much stress put on her frail body? What was I supposed to do if she did?

I was just beginning to consider calling an ambulance when she moved suddenly, throwing an arm over her eyes and yawning widely. The wince of pain that shook her body as she did so made me grimace in empathy, and I immediately vacated my seat in favor of kneeling beside her on the floor, taking one of her hands gently in mine. "Sakura, can you hear me?" I asked softly, and she looked over at me sleepily, smiling and reaching out to touch the side of my face. "Yes… wow, I'm tired. Must be that horrible nightmare that I had. It seemed to go on forev…" She fell silent as she caught sight of her wrist, staring wide eyes at the bandages wound around her arm.

I looked on as she felt up her arm, neck, and face, her movements becoming ever more frenzied as her fears were confirmed over and over. After discovering the cut in her lip she sat up quickly, despite me trying to keep her from doing so, but fell back down to her lying down position immediately, groaning in pain and clutching at her stomach, potentially being tortured by the pain of her rapes. She fell into nearly silent stillness after that, staring up at the ceiling and whispering, when I leaned closer to hear, "It was real… it was all real…" over and over again.

After an agonizing five or six minutes of this I took her hand again (as she had ripped herself from my grip upon discovering her injuries), drawing her reluctant attention away from her musings. "Sakura, I am sorry to bother you with this in your condition, but I must know so that I can take the necessary measures. Where have you been for the past three days? Who did this to you, and why?" I questioned calmly, and she trembled before throwing her arms around my neck, hugging me close to her and sobbing into my shoulder. My impatience grew due to this movement, but I needn't have despaired, because through her shuddering gasps of misery, she began to tell me what had happened.

Sakura had left my house three days ago and gone straight to Sasuke and her shared apartment, finding him within reading in his office. She told me that as soon as she sat down he apologized for the fight that had made her come to me with her resolute plan of leaving him in the first place, once again promising to never lay a hand on her again as long she didn't anger him, but she hadn't agreed this time, instead telling him that she could no longer take his word for granted on that subject. She explained that she had no desire to continue their relationship because of how terribly he had wronged her and how completely he had destroyed her trust, and had stood up to gather a few of her things with a promise to return for the rest at a later date. She shouldn't have turned her back on him though, she told me, because that was when he went ballistic.

She had been about to leave the room when she was shoved roughly against the doorway, her head cracking against the wood and making her black out for an undetermined amount of time. When she woke back up, however, she was being thrown onto the bed they had shared, her hands stretched above her head and tied around one of the bedposts with coarse rope. She was spare on the details following, but from what I could infer from what she did tell me, Sasuke had told her that he would never let her leave, because she was _his_, and she would pay for thinking that she could leave him, after which he proceeded to put her through the humiliation of multiple sessions of forced and unwilling intimacy, beating her and threatening more pain in between said rape.

This continued for the space of a day and a half before she made her first bid for freedom, in the time that he allowed her to go use the bathroom. She tried to climb out of the bathroom window, only to be caught at the very last minute and then very nearly beaten within an inch of her life before being bound and thrown into the bedroom closet, Sasuke threatening to throw her into the swamp he had driven her car into if she ever tried to escape again before leaving her there. During the time that he had to go to work and when he wasn't allowing her to use the toilet (supervised now), feeding her the smallest amount of food he could to keep her alive, or raping her he kept her in there, her hands tied behind her back and mouth gagged so she could not call out for help.

She had, apparently, heard me when I arrived to check and see if anyone was home, and had tried to make enough noise to alert me to her presence, but had been unable to before I departed. I very much wished that I had acted on my instinct and entered the apartment now… she was not angry or bitter about that however; how could I have known? She went on to explain how she had finally made her escape, twisting her hands free from their confines after Sasuke had fallen asleep, accidentally leaving her tied to the bed after forcing himself on her again, and had fled on foot all the way to my home, unfortunately finding no one home when she arrived, and had collapsed from sheer exhaustion before I could return.

She fell silent after her long and fairly detailed account, still hugging me, and I could barely hold myself down, my desire to find my brother and _slaughter_ him for this raging far stronger than anything else I had ever felt. After a while I drew back, looking into her tired and heavily disturbed eyes with a strained, forced smile. "Sakura, I have to go take care of this. I'm going to carry you to my bed, and I want you to go back to sleep while I'm gone. I might be gone for some time, so if you wake before I return, I will set some food and water out for you on my nightstand, but I do not want you to stand or do anything but rest until I get back. Is it alright for me to touch you?"

She gave me a tired, bland look, lifting her arms to allow me to lift her into my own. "You aren't going to hurt me. I know that. But what are you going to do? I don't want you to do anything rash." She said raspily, her crying having strained her throat beyond its capacity, and I kept my eyes forward as I walked back to my bedroom, jaw set. "Sasuke has become a menace and cannot be allowed to remain free. He must be put in jail, for the safety of others, and of you especially. I am going to call in one of the squads to accompany me, but they will be arriving after I do… and I cannot promise you that I will not harm him for this."

She looked at me sadly, but didn't say anything on the subject as I laid her on my bed, pulling the covers over her and going to fetch some food for her. It looked like she had fallen back asleep when I returned, so I set the plate of sandwiches and the glass of water I had made for her on the table beside her and, after staring down at her sleeping face lovingly for a few moments, began to walk away. Her hand catching on my arm made me pause, however, and I turned to find her looking up at me pleadingly.

"Don't hate him, Itachi. The world has changed him; he is not as he used to be, and I can't blame him for thinking the same as the rest. Do what you have to, but please don't lose your respect for your brother." I stared at her incomprehensibly for a few long seconds before looking away.

It was not fair of me to feel so slighted by her concern for Sasuke, even after all that he had done, but I did. I wanted her to care about me, to think of _me_, not just my feelings for my brother, and the resentment I felt for the fact that she so obviously didn't made me lash out. "Not all men think of women so basely, Sakura. I would have thought that you would have realized that by now, with how long you have known me." I muttered bitterly as I walked over to my bedroom door, resting my hand on the knob as I paused to reply to her last comment.

"And I lost my respect for that man the second that he laid a hand on the woman that I love."

_*Do you feel like a man, when you push her around?  
Do you feel better now, as she falls to the ground?*_

I sat for many long minutes in my car in the parking lot of the apartment complex my brother lived in, berating myself over and over for the comment I had delivered before slamming my bedroom door shut and driving as quickly as I could to get here.

What had I been _thinking_?

There was no excuse for me having told her that information right then and making her feel the guilt that she surely did right now. I had had no right to do such a thing when she was in such a delicate state. I should not have allowed my antipathy to show so embarrassingly… ah, but it was too late now, and I could not take back what had been said. I had more than likely ruined my chances with her with my anger, and I would just have accept that. This was not important at the moment, however; I had a criminal to apprehend.

Taking my portable radio off of its charger, I pressed the button on its side, interrupting the flow of one of my lower ranked comrade's reports. "Captain Itachi Uchiha requesting backup for alert code 10349, urgent. Repeat, Captain Itachi Uchiha requesting backup for alert code 10349, urgent." I said into the receiver, keeping a close eye on the curtains of the apartment where my brother currently was, and immediately received a reply. "_Copy that, Captain Uchiha sir, call for backup on alert code 10349. Squad car 465 on its way; what is your location, sir_?"

I pressed the button again, opening my car door and getting ready to step out. "Location at 319 Konoha Estate Apartments, west facing floor. Repeat, location at 319 Konoha Estate Apartments, west facing floor. No further communication possible following this message; immediately apprehending the culprit." I said before throwing the radio onto my passenger seat, getting out of my car and shutting the door as quietly as possible.

The walk up the stairs was much faster than it usually was; this might have been due to the pure fury speeding my footsteps and lengthening my strides into a near run. I forced myself to calm down when I very nearly ran down an old, bespectacled Japanese woman trying to unlock her apartment door, apologizing gratuitously to the grand lady, who told me to piss off in not so many words, before continuing at a slower, more conscientious pace.

All too soon I found myself at his door, looking over the brass number on the door with forced calm, before knocking and stepping back, waiting for an answer. It was nearly immediate, my brother unlocking the deadbolt and pulling the door open. Whoever it was that he had been expecting to see would have been met with a fierce scowl, but upon seeing me, his mouth turned up, his posture straightening in the presence of his upright and regal brother.

"Itachi! I didn't know you were coming by; why didn't you call? Sorry for keeping you waiting, I was just waiting for… it's not important, I guess. Come in, don't just stand there." He said quickly, and my anger resurfaced at his ever so see through cover up. He had been waiting for Sakura's fear to make her come running back. I could do nothing but hate as I looked at him, standing there like there was nothing wrong, so I did the only thing that I was capable of as I took a step forward, short of murdering him where he stood.

I punched him in the face.

He stumbled back a few steps, holding his hand to his nose and looking up at me in surprised shock while I advanced on him further, pulling the door halfway shut behind me after entering the apartment. "What the hell, man? What did I do to you?" he choked out through the blood running down from his nose, leaning heavily against the wall behind him, and I glared more heatedly than I ever have in my life. "I will not make this personal, despite the fact that it most certainly is, so my answer to that is nothing, Sasuke. You have done nothing to me, but what you have done to Sakura is more than enough." I said bluntly, folding my arms and standing in front of the door firmly, and his eyes narrowed at my statements.

"You've seen her? Where is she?" he asked sharply, standing back up to his full height and facing me straight on, and I shook my head in denial. "Yes, I have seen her, but I will not tell you where she is now. Suffice it to say that she is safely out of your reach. But I would not worry so much about her as I would about myself, were I you." I commented stoically, and his shoulders tightened before he laughed, shaking his head and looking at me like he thought this was all a joke. "Come on, Itachi… don't stand there and tell me that you actually took those, "respect women at all times" speeches seriously. Women have a place in this world, and Sakura would not fall into it. She had this weird notion that she should be on equal ground with me… so I put her in line. There's no harm in showing her where she belongs." he said, shrugging, and my teeth clenched together tightly.

"You are the one that needs to be put in line, brother." I snarled acerbically, seizing him by the shirtfront and forcing him back against the wall hard enough that the plaster cracked ominously. "We men are made stronger than women so that we can protect them and work to provide for them, not so that we can rule over them and force them to accept our will over theirs. If you wanted a girl that would be silent and submissive, then you should have found a different one than Sakura, because your first mistake was thinking that you could change her, and your second was trying to do it by beating her."

This admonishment was accompanied by a second punch, this time directed into his abdomen, and his breath left him all at once, doubling over in my grip and wheezing while trying to regain air again. I smirked despite myself, continuing on without pause. "I have known that you've been laying hands on that woman for the better part of a month, Sasuke. The only reason that I haven't made my knowledge of it known to you was that she asked me not to. She begged me not to do anything because you promised to stop. Because you told her that you loved her, and what man would harm that which he loved? I knew that you would not honor such promises and that one day she would have enough, and Friday she finally did. And do you know what you did? Instead of letting her go like you should have, you imprisoned her, abused her even further, forced _intimacy_ on her… how _dare_ you, Sasuke. There is never an excuse for attacking a creature weaker than yourself, but there is even less than that to explain your actions. That was your third mistake, boy… raping her was a bad move."

Another punch was delivered to his face, a sickly crunch heralding his nose breaking beneath my fist, and the yelp of pain that I got in response made my more sadistic side cackle with glee. I was not finished yet, however, and kept on talking while my brother whimpered in my grip and the sounds of police sirens wailed ever closer. "And after nearly a whole day of caring for the girl I found crumpled on my doorstep, I come here and have you tell me that she deserved to have such atrocities applied to her. That it is her place to accept such things, and that I myself should know and agree with them as well! How you could be so foolish, I will never know… but your fourth and final mistake was thinking that I would not care about the woman sleeping in my bed right now. I am going to tell you something, Sasuke… something that I should have told you long before now that would have saved us all a great deal of pain and trouble; I don't intend to have her stray too far from her current residence for the rest of her life."

I did not accompany my final statement with another punch, because the gravity of it itself was enough in my opinion (and because it was, at that moment, that my backup arrived and I had no desire to look unprofessional in front of my lessers). The look that he gave me as the admition sunk in made me nearly want to laugh, but I did not. I had to remain serious or he would think that I was joking. My unchanging expression, even as I handed him off to the blonde and redheaded officers assisting me so that they could handcuff him, made a glare that could rival my own light his eyes with a hateful fire. "So she's a whore as well as a bitch. I hope you're happy with the trash you'll be shining up and pretending is better than it really is, Itachi. I'll remember what you've done." He growled at me as he fought to stay in my sight while the two officers struggled to pull him out the door, reading him his Miranda Rights as they went, and as much as I wanted to punch him again for his slights, I knew he was merely trying to goad me and smirked at him. "Think what you will, brother. And while you're remembering things, remember _this_…" I leaned close to him, whispering in his ear, and then let the two officers drag him away, the look of open hate on his face from my comment making my heart sink.

While what I had said to him was true, was it really worth alienating my own flesh and blood? My father and mother wouldn't forgive this easily, and Sasuke's crimes were not so grievous to have him receive the death sentence; there would be someone there for the rest of my life reminding me of my familial betrayal.

"She will be more happy with me than she ever was with you…"

Should I have sided with my brother instead of a girl that might not even want me?

_*Well, I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end,  
as your lies crumble down, a new life she has found.*_

"For the detriment crimes of kidnap, criminal abuse, assault, destruction of private property, theft, malicious intent, sexual abuse, and rape, we find you, Sasuke Uchiha, guilty of all charges and sentence you to one hundred and sixteen years in prison, with no opportunity for release due to good behavior and no chance of parole. Bailiff, please escort this man from my courtroom. Court dismissed."

Sasuke immediately protested, standing up in his seat with a jingle of the chains restraining his hands and feet. "No! You can't do that to me, you don't have enough proof! That girl is a liar, and my brother can't be trusted! He turned on me to gain my girlfriend's admiration, and…" The judge gave him a bored look, rolling her eyes behind her blonde bangs and yawning. "And let me guess, aliens were the ones that confirmed the rape kit they used on Ms. Haruno, right? God, just give it up, kid. Get him out of here before he causes a panic." She said in obvious boredom, scratching at the diamond shaped stone in the middle of her forehead, and the bailiff immediately seized my struggling brother, dragging him from the conviction box and leading him across the floor with a great deal of difficulty.

His protests continued as another officer joined the bailiff in trying to eject him from the room, and I stood up from my seat in the pews, straightening my suit coat and picking up my briefcase while avoiding eye contact with the pink haired girl staring at me from across the room.

My guilt over my betrayal had not lessened any in the month it had been since arresting my brother, and I had distanced myself from Sakura as a result. I should not be rewarded with my desires for putting Sasuke behind bars. I did not deserve the happiness that I had returned to when I had come home that night, Sakura hugging me and, in no easy terms, letting me know that she understood how I felt now and wanted to, after recovering fully, have a relationship with me. I had not given her an answer in the time that had followed, ignoring her phone calls and refusing her visits, but she never stopped trying. Perhaps she understood what I was feeling and didn't hold it against me…

If that was so, she was more perfect than I could ever hope to be.

I snorted softly as Sasuke fought even harder to escape his just fate, turning away from the heart wrenching sight and starting to walk down the aisle that would lead out of the room. I should have expected her to follow me. I should have known that my movements would be arrested with a soft hand on the crook of my arm, that her gentle voice would call out to me and ask me to wait. I should have known, and perhaps, some part of me did, but another part had been hoping that my coldness towards her these past few weeks would have driven her away and that she would turn her back on me like I was trying to do to her and that she would forget about me. She was not that sort of person, however, and with my unconscious knowledge of her reactions to my trying to leave without speaking to her, I turned around to face the girl holding me back, looking down at her as flatly as I could.

"Yes?" I asked politely, and a small crease appeared between her eyebrows, showing her disapproval of my detached state and drawing my attention to the things that I had missed over the last month. She had healed quite well from her injuries, the only remaining signs of her abuse a small scar beneath her bottom lip and the curve of another showing just at the edge of her hairline. She looked absolutely radiant, with her hair brushed back and no makeup on… "You've been ignoring me." She accused playfully, shooting me a reproving glare and regaining my attention, and I shrugged as noncommittally as I could manage.

"I have been very busy. Now you must excuse me; I have to return to work." I lied, tugging my arm from her grip and starting to turn away again, but she didn't allow it, grabbing on to my hand to restrain me. "Don't walk away again, Itachi. Don't make me wait any longer. I've been waiting for a month for you to show me what you told me that day in your room, and you never have. Was it a lie to make me feel bad, then? Do you not really love me?" she said heatedly, and that _immediately_ gained my attention.

I turned to look at her incredulously, anger at having my feelings slighted flaring without realizing that I was about to fall into a trap. "You dare too much, girl. I have never lied to you, and I never will." I snapped at her, and then watched the smirk on her face grow with trepidation. She grinned up at me confidently, now that she had tricked an admition from me. "Well, if you _do_ love me, then what are you waiting for? I told you that I wanted to give "us" a try…"

I turned my eyes away, glaring down at the ground silently in response. She would not understand if I tried to explain. She had no siblings… she did not have that connection for it to be broken, and would never have to go through the anguish that I was at my own severing of that very joining.

I heard her sigh heavily before squeezing my hand, slowly moving her fingers underneath mine mysteriously. "I hope you know that a relationship with me wouldn't include anything related to your brother. You are not the same person, and I've never thought that you were. Hopefully you can say the same for me…" she said, leaving the end of the statement open, and I looked back at her contemplatively as she slowly worked her fingers so that they would fit between mine. She was correct in her statement; anything that happened between us would be only about us. This didn't have to have anything to do with Sasuke, besides the fact that he had lost her and I was gaining her.

Could I live with that, though?

As her fingers twined with mine, her smile finally for me and only me, I found that I could. I could live up to my own lowest expectations and take what I never should have wanted as my own. I would allow myself to be happy, despite being forced to put Sasuke in jail to have it be that way. I would give Sakura everything that she had deserved from the man being led kicking and screaming through the door at the end of the courtroom. I would love her more than anything else, and I would make sure she never forgot it.

_*Face down in the dirt, she said, "This doesn't hurt."  
She said, "I've finally had enough!"*_

Was losing my brother worth gaining the love of this girl? Think what you will of me, but I finally had my answer…

Yes.

_

* * *

Woo! Yeah… I kind of liked it. Short, angsty, lovey-ish… ItaSaku success. What did you think? Drop me a review and tell me! Thanks for reading even if you don't review, and this is me and my first completed fanfic, signing out!_


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